M+B is pleased to announce Dance, Without Incident, a special presentation of new works by Didier William. The works will be on view July 17 through July 24 at M+B Doheny, with an opening reception on Saturday, July 17 from 6 to 9 pm.
Didier William’s process draws on myth, Afro-Caribbean history and memory to reimagine narratives of the Black diaspora. His paintings are informed by the psychosocial spaces occupied by these communities. In this new body of work, William draws from his upbringing and the architecture in South Florida, home to the largest Haitian population outside of Haiti. The three largest paintings imagine a trio of individual bodies dancing and leaping over boldly colored rooftops. Space is flattened and comprised of a mango leaf pattern - a nod to the transplanted tropical fauna that line the region. The motifs and exultant figures in these new works are an affirmation of presence and persistence, of landscapes remade in the image of homes left behind. In contrast are three smaller works from William's Apprehended Without Incident series, in which bodies, comprised of piercing eyes, bear witness to the deeply unequal process and spectacle of detainment and apprehension in this country.
Didier William (b. 1983, Port-au-Prince, Haiti) earned his BFA in painting from The Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Yale University, School of Art. His work will be on view in an upcoming solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami in 2022. William has also exhibited at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (Hartford, CT), Bronx Museum of Art, Museum of Latin American Art (Long Beach, CA), Figge Art Museum (Davenport, IA), Museum at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Philadelphia, PA), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville, AR), and the Museum of the African Diaspora (San Francisco, CA), among others. His work has received critical recognition from The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Hyperallergic, Harpers Magazine, New York Magazine and Art In America. William was a 2020 recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant, and has taught at several institutions including Yale School of Art, Vassar College, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania and SUNY Purchase. He is currently Assistant Professor at Rutgers University. Didier William lives and works in Philadelphia.
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